Professor Vernon Gayle, University of Stirling, Scotland

Social Stratification and Attitudes to Education in Contemporary Britain:A Multivariate Analysis of the British

Youth Panel

Professor Vernon Gayle, University of Stirling, ScotlandDr Damon Berridge, Lancaster University, England

Dr David Stott, Lancaster University, England

In the UKStriking and persistent relationship between children’s socio-economic backgrounds (measured by parents occupations) and educational outcomes (especially school level qualifications)

This association is robust and net of other factors

Stronger association than gender and ethnicity

Association persists whichever socio-economic classification is modelled

There is a line of argument that suggests that these observed differences in educational attainment are, in part, due to young people from different social backgrounds having different aspirations and attitudes to education

Since the mid 1980s there has been an political assault on schools and teachers to improve standards (mainly examination results and qualifications)

Particular focus on the ‘poor’, under-privaledged’, ‘socially excluded’ or whatever terminology is currently popular…

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Old Sociology of EducationSome studies that I was taught about when I was an undergraduate (1987-1990)

Willis, P. (1977) Learning to Labour: How working class kids get working class jobsEthnographic study in West Midlands

Corrigan, P. (1979) Schooling the Smash Street KidsStudy of working class boys in Sunderland

Lacey, C. (1970) Hightown Grammar – The school as a social systemStudy of a northern grammar school. A study of the ‘disappointing performance of working class boys in grammar schools since the 1944Education Act’ (p.xi)

Rutter, M. et al. (1979) Fifteen Thousand Hours – Secondary schools and their effects on children15,000 hours the average time spent at school, a study of 12 inner London schools 2,000 pupils tracked though secondary school

Douglas, J.W.B. (1964) The Home and the School: A study of ability and attainment in the primary schoolDouglas, J.W.B. (1970) All our futures

Studies of the 1946 birth cohort

A study that I have recently read

Wedge, P. and Prosser, H. (1973) Born to Fail?Children’s Bureau report on the striking differences in the lives of British children

A more recent example

Devine, F. (2004) Class Practices – How parents help their children get good jobsA qualitative study of middle class parents in Britain and America

The is a popular line of argument that suggests that these observed differences in educational attainment are, in part, due to young people from different social backgrounds having different aspirations and attitudes to education

This has an initial ring of plausibility…

However, John Goldthorpe is a Fellow of the British Academy, I am not… Is that down to my low aspirations?

Educational policy in the UK is in a state of flux (the Departmental website clearly states that the views expressed might not be those of the Government)

(Pre May 2010) Government priority breaking the association between social background and educational attainment

New Government hint that changing aspirations and attitudes might be key to better educational attainment

New Conservative Coalition Government recently appointed a ‘Social Mobility Tsar’, former Labour Government Minister Alan Milburnwho is a ‘working class boy made good’

This is our first attempt to try to explore some contemporary attitudinal data…

BEWARE VERY EARLY STAGES OF WORK IN PROGRESS

[Models take an eternity to fit][and yes of course we would have liked to fit models with age squared and Camsis etc etc.]

[Double negative – sorry I cannot promise not to do this]

British Household Panel Survey• Major household longitudinal survey• Began in 1991• Based on an annual interview• Approximately 5,000 household and 10,000 adults• Similar in design to the German Socio-Economic Panel

• Has been subsumed and greatly extended – is now a component of the Understanding Society the UK Household Longitudinal Study (40K households)

British Household Panel Survey• British Youth Panel is a component of the BHPS

• Special questionnaire

• Annual interview with young people in the household aged 11-15

• At age 16 they enter the adult survey

Structure of the British Youth Panel (BYP)(Rotating Panel)

Waves4 5 6 7

Age 11 iAge 12 ii iAge 13 iii ii iAge 14 iv iii ii iAge 15 v iv iii iiAdult Survey v iv, v iii,iv,v

Structure of the British Youth Panel (BYP)(Rotating Panel)

Waves4 5 6 7

Age 11 i vi vii viiiAge 12 ii i vi viiAge 13 iii ii i viAge 14 iv iii ii iAge 15 v iv iii iiAdult Survey v iv, v iii,iv,v

Wave Year Age11 12 13 14 15 16

L 2002 179 153 166 160 171 13 842M 2003 111 179 147 163 154 13 767N 2004 129 128 170 147 153 14 741O 2005 133 139 129 164 152 11 728P 2006 118 141 141 127 169 18 714Q 2007 110 119 141 137 121 4 632

780 859 894 898 920 73 4,424

BYP Sample Size by AgeWave L (2002) to Q (2007) (Essex Originals)

Present analyses are restricted to young people in (original) BHPS household in England

– This is because these household have not been over-sampled– The young people are in they same education system and aiming/studying for the same qualifications

Observations = 4,424 from n = 1,564 individuals

Number of waves observed Percentage

CumulativePercentage n

1 8 8 3712 15 23 6543 22 45 9784 25 71 1,1165 30 100 1,305

4,424

BYP Sample Size by Number of WavesWave L (2002) to Q (2007) (Essex Originals)

The next few questions are about how you feel about different aspects of your life.

The faces express various types of feelings. Below each face is a number where ‘1’ is completely happy and ‘7’ is not at all happy. Please tick the box that comes closest to expressing how you feel about each of the following things.

Descriptive StatisticsOutcomes

1. Important to get GCSE exams2. How do you feel about your school3. How much it means to do well at school4. I like most of my teachers5. Teachers are always getting at me6. How do you feel about school work

All Years

Very important 77%Important

21%Not very important orNot at all important 2%

n 4,397

How important do you think it is for you to get you GCSE exams?

All Years

1 Completely happy 32%

2 28%

3 19%

4 Neither happy / unhappy 11%5 4%6 2%7 Completely unhappy 4%

n 4,405

The school you go toPlease tick the box that comes closest to expressing how you feel about each of the following things

BHPS coding scheme

All Years

A great deal 57%Quite a lot

37%A bit, but not very much andVery little 7%

n 4,424

How much does it mean to you to do well at school?

All Years

Strongly agree 15%Agree

53%Disagree 23%Strongly disagree 9%

n 4,400

I like most of my teachers

All Years

Strongly agree 8%Agree

18%Disagree 51%Strongly disagree 24%

n 4,398

Teachers are always getting at me

All Years

1 Completely happy 17%

2 33%

3 29%

4 Neither happy / unhappy 14%5 4%6 1%7 Completely unhappy 2%

n 4,406

Your school workPlease tick the box that comes closest to expressing how you feel about each of the following things

BHPS coding scheme

Xttab one-way tabulation and decomposes counts into between and within components in panel data

Measure of the overall stability – percentages are a normalised between weighted average of the within percentages

Important to get GCSE exams 62%How do you feel about your school 33%

(3 categories) 56%How much it means to do well at school 53%I like most of my teachers 43%Teachers are always getting at me 44%How do you feel about school work 36%

(3 categories) 58%

Explanatory VariablesExplanatory variables implicated in the sociology of education and youth literature (and available in the data set)

•Wave (2002 – 2007)•Age (11 – 16 years)•Gender (males; females)

•Family Registrar Generals Social Class [RGSC](I professional; II managerial & technical; IIIn skilled non-manual; IIIm skilled manual; iv partly

skilled; v unskilled)– semi-dominance approach father or mother

•Highest Qualification (parents)(higher qualifications [e.g. graduates]; A’ levels; O’level and equivalents; no qualifications)

•Parents in a different household (no; yes)•Lone Parent Household [mother] (in addition mother is a lone parent)

•Housing tenure [mother] (own/mortgage; local authority rented; housing association rented; other rented)

Summary of associations

Age – decrease in school happiness; teacher likeability decreases; teacher get a pupils more; happiness with school work declines; Gender (females) – means more to do well; like teachers; don’t feel teachers are getting at them; happier with school work;

RGSC (lower groups) smaller proportions think GCSE important; unhappier with school; means less to do well at school; agreement that teacher get at me; less happy with school work;

Hi Qual (less) similar to RGSC

GSCE Exams

School Do well at school

Like teachers

Teacher get at me

School work

Wave - - - -.06 - -.06Age - .18 - .14 -.11 .11Gender - - -.04 -.08 .15 -.10Family RGSC .14 .05 .06 - -.08 .04Highest Qualifications .15 .07 .13 .07 -.14 .07Parents in a different house .12 - .06 - -.07 -Lone Parent Household .14 - .09 - -.12 -Housing tenure (mother) .08 .11 .08 .06 -.16 .07

Statistical Modelling Methodology• Ordered categorical data (proportional odds)

• (Univariate) Ordinal random effects models – Possible in gllamm or MLwiN

• Could be fitted as a mixed model (e.g in gllamm)– Less satisfactory as responses may not have the same

number of ordered categories– Or levels of the categories may have different

substantive meanings

Statistical Modelling Methodology• New software for bivariate (two outcome) ordered

categorical data

– Natural extension of the bivariate probit (probit probit)to handle ordinal responses

– Estimates two models simultaneously – therefore the model provides two sets of parameter estimates (a mixed approach would only provide a single set)

– This is particularly attractive as an effect may vary across outcomes

Statistical Modelling Methodology• New software for bivariate (two outcome) ordered

categorical data

– Correlated responses better controlled for with a parameter estimating the correlation between the two random effects

Random Effect ModelsGSCE

ExamsSchool Do well

at schoolLike

teachersTeacher

get at meSchool work

Wave - - - - - -Age - - Gender - - - Family RGSC - - - - -Highest Qualifications - - - - -Parents in a different house - - - - - -Lone Parent Household - - - - - -Housing tenure (mother) - - - - - -Random effect (scale)

Not significant - Significant

Bivariate Random Effect Models

GSCE Exams

School Do well at school

Like teachers

Teacher get at me

School, feel about .24Do well at school .76 .28Like teachers .26 .51 .34Teachers get at me -.25 -.46 -.35 -.70School work, feel about .35 .49 .40 .52 -.52

Associations Between Outcome Variables

Bivariate Random Effects ModelWe observe correlations between these outcomes

Methodological motivation is to model them simultaneously in a random effects framework

– Models estimated using quadrature are extremely slow

Bivariate Random Effects ModelJoint model of two correlated outcomes‘feel about your school’ and ‘teachers are always getting at me (Gamma=-.46)

Regrettably the initial results are not particularly impressive!

Univarite R.E. Models Bivariate R.E. ModelsFeel about school Teacher get at Feel about school Teacher get at

B s.e. B s.e. B s.e. B s.e.wave13 0.00 0.10 -0.05 0.11 -0.03 0.10 -0.01 0.10wave14 -0.07 0.11 -0.08 0.11 -0.10 0.11 -0.03 0.11wave15 -0.11 0.11 -0.07 0.12 -0.15 0.11 -0.03 0.12wave16 0.00 0.11 -0.10 0.12 -0.03 0.12 -0.08 0.13wave17 -0.15 0.12 0.11 0.13 -0.17 0.13 0.11 0.13age12 0.27 0.10 -0.10 0.11 0.26 0.10 -0.10 0.11age13 0.84 0.10 -0.61 0.11 0.81 0.10 -0.60 0.11age14 1.06 0.11 -0.67 0.11 1.05 0.11 -0.66 0.12age15 1.18 0.11 -0.60 0.12 1.17 0.11 -0.60 0.12age16 1.51 0.26 -0.51 0.28 1.52 0.29 -0.64 0.31female -0.11 0.09 0.41 0.10 -0.09 0.09 0.42 0.10mum not lone parent w/ch 0.05 0.16 -0.04 0.17 0.03 0.15 -0.05 0.16mum LA renter 0.22 0.14 -0.41 0.15 0.17 0.13 -0.36 0.13mum HA renter 0.15 0.19 -0.35 0.20 0.15 0.16 -0.27 0.21mum other renter 0.37 0.17 -0.31 0.18 0.28 0.16 -0.21 0.19parents' quals: A level 0.05 0.16 -0.26 0.17 0.04 0.16 -0.27 0.17parents' quals: O level/other 0.11 0.12 -0.35 0.12 0.06 0.12 -0.37 0.12parents' quals: none 0.35 0.20 -0.13 0.21 0.36 0.18 -0.09 0.20parents manager/technical 0.09 0.16 -0.03 0.17 0.08 0.17 0.01 0.17parents skilled non-manual 0.24 0.18 0.02 0.19 0.29 0.19 0.02 0.18parents skilled manual 0.15 0.19 -0.07 0.20 0.17 0.20 -0.04 0.19parents partly skilled 0.15 0.20 -0.10 0.22 0.16 0.21 -0.09 0.21parents unskilled 0.69 0.31 -0.81 0.33 0.64 0.33 -0.81 0.33parents different household -0.08 0.14 -0.05 0.15 -0.06 0.14 -0.07 0.14

Substantive Conclusions• Less switching of attitudes than we anticipated

• Overall Satisfaction with the school experience+ Importance of GCSEs+ Happy with school+ Doing well means a lot+ Mostly teacher are liked - Over a ¼ agree teachers are get at them+ Happy with school work

Substantive ConclusionsLimited evidence…

• Ageing effect, as pupil moves through school – become more less satisfied

• Gender – females are more pro-school• Family socio-economic effect for GCSE importance• Family education effect for doing well

Moving towards an evaluation of

The is a popular line of argument that suggests that these observed differences in educational attainment are, in part, due to young people from different social backgrounds having different aspirations and attitudes to education

Quite a long way to go…

More sociological thought about the potential relationships between attitudes and education

Next Steps• Yesterday estimates for measures of bullying and

truancy emerged

• Start to model data on educational outcomes

• Incorporate ‘parental’ attitudinal data on education

• Think more about the precise interpretation of models

Next Steps• Think more about this approach

– Improve the specification of model (especially alternative measures)

– Try to speed up model estimation

• Longer term aim – compare and contrast this type of approach with ‘latent class’ style analyses

p V Gamma

Wave .69 .03 -.02

Age (respondent) .23 .04 -.01

Gender .12 .03 -.04

Family Registrar Generals Social Class (RGSC) <.01 .08 .14Highest Qualification (parents) <.01 .07 .15

Parents in a different household <.01 .05 .12

Lone Parent Household (mother) <.01 .06 .14

Housing tenure (mother) <.01 .05 .08

How important do you think it is for you to get you GCSE exams?

p V Gamma

Wave .28 .04 -.02

Age (respondent) <.01 .09 .18

Gender .59 .03 -.02

Family Registrar Generals Social Class (RGSC) <.01 .05 .05Highest Qualification (parents) .02 .05 .07

Parents in a different household .07 .05 .02

Lone Parent Household (mother) .08 .05 .05


The school you go toPlease tick the box that comes closest to expressing how you feel about each of the following things

p V Gamma

Wave .02 .05 -.02

Age (respondent) .87 .02 .00

Gender <.01 .04 -.04

Family Registrar Generals Social Class (RGSC) <.01 .08 .06

Highest Qualification (parents) <.01 .08 .13

Parents in a different household <.01 .05 .06

Lone Parent Household (mother) <.01 .05 .09


How much does it mean to you to do well at school?

p V Gamma

Wave <.01 .05 -.06


Gender <.01 .05 -.08

Family Registrar Generals Social Class (RGSC) .06 .04 .03

Highest Qualification (parents) <.01 .04 .07

Parents in a different household .39 .03 -.01

Lone Parent Household (mother) .12 .04 -.02


I like most of my teachers

p V Gamma

Wave .15 .04 .01

Age (respondent) <.01 .07 -.11

Gender <.01 .09 .15

Family Registrar Generals Social Class (RGSC) <.01 .07 -.08

Highest Qualification (parents) <.01 .07 -.14

Parents in a different household <.03 .04 -.07

Lone Parent Household (mother) <.01 .06 -.12

Housing tenure (mother) <.01 .08 -.16

Teachers are always getting at me

p V Gamma

Wave <.01 .05 -.06


Gender <.01 .07 -.10

Family Registrar Generals Social Class (RGSC) <.01 .05 .04Highest Qualification (parents) <.01 .07 .07

Parents in a different household .08 .05 .07

Lone Parent Household (mother) .19 .05 .08


Your school workPlease tick the box that comes closest to expressing how you feel about each of the following things

Bivariate Random Effects ModelJoint model of two correlated outcomes‘important to get GCSEs’ and ‘feel about your school’ (Gamma=.24)

The attraction of this type of model is that it is our first attempt to try to move towards a ‘multivariate’ (i.e. multiple outcome) model of attitudes

– represent the ordinality of outcome measures

Significant Variables GSCE Exams Feel about school Joint ModelGSCE Exams / Feel about school

s.e. s.e. s.e.Family RGSCi. Professional - -

ii. Manager/technical 0.53 0.26 0.50 0.27iiin Skilled non-manual 0.57 0.28 0.59 0.29iiim Skilled manual 1.14 0.29 1.11 0.30iv Partly skilled 0.81 0.31 0.81 0.32v Unskilled 1.32 0.44 1.34 0.46

Age1112 0.22 0.09 0.28 0.1013 0.69 0.09 0.84 0.1014 0.85 0.09 1.06 0.1115 0.92 0.09 1.18 0.1116 0.96 0.22 1.47 0.29

Obs = 4200Cases = 1505

Scale = 1.59 Obs = 4211Cases = 1507

Scale = 1.22 Obs = 8411Cases = 1507

Scale =1.57Scale = 1.22

Cor = .49

Ordinal Random Effects Model including - Wave; Age; Gender; Family RGSC; Highest Qualifications; Parents in a different house; Lone Parent Household; Housing tenure.

Professor Vernon Gayle, University of Stirling, Scotland

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Transcript of Professor Vernon Gayle, University of Stirling, Scotland